I stepped into the water and the water recognized me—every element of the bath ARIA had engineered for me, the tub, the mineral blend, the temperature-coded surface tension, all of it settling around my body the second I broke the surface, courtiers arranging themselves around a king who had just walked into the throne room.
The water rose to meet my thighs, my hips, my ribs. Curled along my spine and folded under the small of my back. Closed over my shoulders with the unmistakable enthusiasm of something that had been waiting all morning for the privilege.
Reverence, I think you'd call it.
If you were being generous.
But if you were being honest, you'd call it worship.
I leaned my head back against the curved lip of the tub and let myself, for the first time since I'd opened my eyes three hours ago, look at what the universe had built me into.
